In an existing communications system, terminals have communication functions and a protocol adapted to the network, and carry out communication by connecting to the network using them.
In a typical communications method, a sending terminal makes transmission by using a mobile phone number (or mail address), and is connected through a home location register (HLR) that resolves the location information about the terminal.
In a service using such a communications system, a user designates a communication party terminal and connects up to the party terminal. After completing the connection, the user requests a desired service to be offered from the party terminal. Subsequently, it can receive the service from the party terminal. As for such a method, when the user cannot identify the party terminal, the user cannot receive the services offered.
Recently, systems are proposed which can solve such a problem, and implement a computing environment the user can use without being conscious of the location or existence. Such systems enable the communication without being conscious of the protocol in a variety of communications devices (see, Patent Documents 1 and 2, for example).
As specific services, a technique is disclosed in which a user who lost the article, to which a data tag capable of communicating with an observation apparatus is attached, transmits information about the article to be searched for to a server using a terminal. The server carries out communication with the data tag through a plurality of observation devices (see Patent Document 3, for example).
The conventional search systems, however, cannot track the object of search in terms of time.
In addition, in the conventional search systems, the range of the search is restricted by the protocol to which the gateway conforms or within an area communicable through the gateway. Accordingly, it is not rare for the conventional search system to be unable to search for the object of search even if the object is present near the observation apparatus.
Furthermore, the conventional search system cannot conduct the search when the user side does not know the identification information about the object of search. Accordingly, it has a problem of being unable to search for a specific type of articles or information such as searching for a printer nearby.
Patent Document 1: Japanese patent application laid-open No. 2004-208101. Patent Document 2: Japanese patent application laid-open No. 2004-280350. Patent Document 3: Japanese patent application laid-open No. 2004-132732.